Originally a culinary journey through the best (and sometimes not the best) eateries in Melbourne interstate and international. This site is a free guide. Your comments are very welcome and any contributions will be added to the site. Feel free to email us reviews, anytime and anywhere.

Monday, April 25, 2016

Is this a cake shop posing as a cafeteria or vice versa? Not an uncommon combination these days but Truffles is a bit different because the food has a distinctly Polish orientation. Their version of an opera cake for example, is far from the French one we are used to.

They have a board of specials,

and a laminated one page, two sided menu.

This might not have been much of a draw card for me but for one dish- Flaczki, better known to us as tripe soup. Except for the RACV, which has a tripe club which meets a few times a year, and an occasional yum cha if I want tripe I usually have to cook it myself. Not any longer. It's a chef's special on the menu every day.The food is not expensive and the menu offers an assortment of dishes such as borscht, pirogi and schnitzel as well as a small range of traditional Anglo Saxon (is that PC?) dishes such as eggs Benedict.It's a pleasant open venue. I came for the tripe soup which was excellent. The
tripe perfectly cooked, the soup tasty, not over seasoned and a couple
of thick slices of lightly toasted bread. ($12) Also tried the Chef's
platter - a bit of everything. This was very average. Everything was OK
but nothing stood out Borscht OK, Herring salad OK, Pirogi two each of
Sauerkraut and mushroom, pork and beef, creamy potato and cottage cheese
of which only the potato had any appeal, sauerkraut salad OK and bread
and butter ($22)I'll be back for the FlaczkiThe cakes will have to wait for another day.Score: 13/20

Saturday, April 02, 2016

After a less than exciting previous visit we thought we might try this suburban seafood restaurant once more.Nothing, including the menu, had changed that I could see, since our last visit. Crowded and noisy We chose to sit outside, quite comfortably despite the wind and cool weather. This is a place without pretensions. Cutlery, menus and serviettes sit in boxes on the bare tables. The menu is largely fish. Tommy Ruff is a sort of cod fish. It can be battered or baked, you can have veggies or chips and a variety of sauces and they have some salads. They also offer platters,

prawns, bugs,mussels and more. In the right hands this has the potential to be quite excellent. No where near when we were there.

Sandra chose a baked whole flounder

Seriously overcooked it was dry as a bone.

Salmon also failed to impress

Fish and vegetables

was also just Okay

What good here. Service is friendly and efficient, Serves are quite substantial and prices are very reasonable.

It is popular with locals who patronise the place regularly so it must have something but I don't know what.

We were all set for a great night. The sun was slowly setting leaving a colourful backdrop to sillouhetted buildings. It was very inviting.

Massive stone figures stood guard outside the restaurant.

No doubt we had come to the right place

T

They have a modestly priced wine list with a bit of everything. Wishing to try before we buy I asked for a taste of a pinot that they also sell by the glass. Nothing wrong with it but no one liked it. I chose another. Sorry, the manager has a policy and will not permit more than one wine to be tasted! They were unbending which we all found extremely irritating - who wants to buy a bottle blind and find it unappealing so guess what we drank beer!

or cocktails.

We went for a selection of entrees starting with short soup which was not especially good, or bad, about average.

Maybe they suspected something as they brought salt, pepper and soy sauce which they removed after we finished the soup.

The next course was much more exciting Kataifi mandarin scallops.

This was both delicate and delicious.The next entree was Garfish stuffed with mushrooms on a mushroom sauce.

I don't want to eat garfish any other way. The flesh was moist almost falling apart tender, the equal of any fish and better than I can ever remember. Nicely presented too.We then had a couple of mains. A dish of prawns with vegetables in a light sauce was another delight to the eye.

Unfortunately it was almost tasteless although the products were the freshest and best quality

A dish of spinach also failed the taste test. Asking to see the whole barramundi we ordered with ginger and shallots we were presented with a live fish flipping around in a bucket. Enough to make one hesitate. We ordered it anyway. It arrived at the table transformed.

It looked magnificent and had been cooked just right. Still there was a big problem. Somehow they failed to season the dish so it was another great look but disappointingly bland.We also had a dish of fried rice with plenty of of prawns but in the end short on taste.Comments: It's a beautiful restaurant, well spaced large tables, white linen cloths and napkins, attentive uniformed wait staff and not terribly expensive, we spent $70 per person. It scores well everywhere except for one failing - the food lacks taste.Score: 14/20

About Me

This is a joint venture, to which you are welcome to join. Sandra, a perpetual student, has a doctorate in Psychology and now completed a Masters in gastronomy at Adelaide University.. She is an excellent cook and has a very good palate. We share interests in travel arts and literature and especially food. I am an aging bonviveur, workaholic gourmet slowly losing a battle with obesity. We love all good things.